Abstract

BACKGROUND & AIMS:

Liver fibrosis is an important prognostic factor in patients with hepatitis C. The effect of pegylated (PEG) interferon alone or its combination with ribavirin on fibrosis has not been established.

METHODS:

We pooled individual data from 3010 naive patients with pretreatment and posttreatment biopsies from 4 randomized trials. Ten different regimens combining standard interferon, PEG interferon, and ribavirin were compared. The impact of each regimen was estimated by the percentage of patients with at least 1 grade improvement in the necrosis and inflammation (METAVIR score), the percentage of patients with at least 1 stage worsening in fibrosis METAVIR score, and by the fibrosis progression rate per year.